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What pattern is in the Puzzle below? What replaces the "?". You have 4 choices.

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Hint

Turn them into words

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1 Answer 1

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The answer is:

Zn - the chemical symbol for Zinc.

Why? First, let's write out the names of the shapes, the numbers represented by the Roman numerals, and the chemical elements from the diagram:

ELLIPSE SQUARE RHOMBUS STAR
ELEVEN NINE TEN EIGHT
MANGANESE RADIUM COPPER ?

Now, note what happens if you...

...read the entries of each row from right to left:

STAR, RHOMBUS, SQUARE, ELLIPSE
EIGHT, TEN, NINE, ELEVEN
?, COPPER, RADIUM, MANGANESE

We have a sequence where the last letter of one word matches the first letter of the next! To this end, we need to choose the chemical symbol representing an element ending in 'C' (to fit beside Copper). Given that our options are Oxygen (O), Zinc (Zn), Tin (Sn) and Zirconium (Zr), the only one of these which ends in C and satisfies the pattern is ZINC!

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  • $\begingroup$ Did you get it before I added the hint? $\endgroup$
    – DrD
    Nov 17, 2021 at 13:55
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    $\begingroup$ @DrD I had already previously done what the hint suggested, but hadn't been able to spot the solution. The hint confirmed for me that I was on the right track and should keep looking at what I'd got until I extracted something that made logical sense :) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Nov 17, 2021 at 14:50

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